Sonos Fights and Wins Against Patent Troll

Craig Shelburne, co-founder and general counsel for Sonos:

In 2012, a newly formed patent assertion entity (PAE) called Black Hills Media filed a suit against us for alleged infringement of 11 patents they had acquired from defunct companies. Despite Black Hills Media being a PAE (which are sometimes labeled as “patent trolls”), we thoroughly investigated the patents before deciding our course of action. Not only were we 100% certain that we did not infringe any of these patents, but we also strongly believed the patents themselves were not valid.

We chose to fight back in court and at the Patent Office. We spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours defending our position, on the principle that you should not pay for something you do not use.

Good for Sonos.

★ Wednesday, 6 May 2015